LeBron James: How Many Titles Would It Take for Him to Surpass Kobe Bryant?

In only a week's time, we can honestly begin to consider LeBron James as one of the greatest players to play the game of basketball.

At 26 years old and after nearly eight seasons, James has two MVP's, has made it on to seven All-Star teams, five All-NBA first teams, three All-NBA Defensive first teams, and has won a scoring title. LeBron already has the accomplishments to make the Hall of Fame but lacks the one piece of hardware that is required to solidify your spot as one of the best to play the game: a championship ring.

Since he joined the league as an 18-year-old straight out of St. Mary's-St. Vincent's High School, James has been on the journey for an NBA title. He turned the team around and made them into a playoff team after only two years and had them in the NBA Finals by his fourth year. His team would be swept but we would realize that a title would come soon if James continued to play strong.

James played strong but unfortunately his team didn't make many moves to help his cause. The Cavaliers would win more than 61 games for two of the next three seasons but wouldn't advance past the conference finals as they'd lose in those finals to Orlando in 2009 and to Boston in the conference semi's in 2010. LeBron was strengthening his legacy with individual awards, but couldn't win the most important team award.

LeBron was doing all he could to solidify a title, but he could never come close enough to achieving his goal. After some time, we began to think that James was forever destined to walk the earth in search of the award that would have basically made him a Hall of Fame shoo-in. Instead, he's compared with the likes of Karl Malone and Charles Barkley and how they too were amazing NBA players without championship rings.

However, with his Heat up 2-1 on the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, we can begin to ponder just how much of an impact this title would hold on James' career. He'd certainly get the morale boost and he would finally silence his critics after talking for nearly a year, but what about his status as one of the best to play?

He's already considered as one of the 50 best to play and is even considered as one of the top 25 thanks to the accolades that he currently possesses and his athleticism, which goes unmatched. James has been known as one of the most dominant forces to play since Shaquille O'Neal and has used his freakish athleticism as an advantage over every other player in the history of the game.

He has the numbers at 27 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists and has consistently posted the numbers required to be known as one of the greatest.

After this possible title, however, the situation might become a little more difficult to decipher due to the fact that LeBron might not win Finals MVP. While he was key in Game 1 with 24 points, he has struggled on offense in Games 2 and 3. It has been Dwyane Wade who led the team with 36 points in a Game 2 loss and 29 in a Game 3 win. Wade already has one Finals MVP after winning it in 2006.

As much as it pains me to say it, let's compare the career of LeBron James to that of Kobe Bryant.

After 15 years of playing professional basketball, Bryant not only has the stats, but the hardware to back up a well-earned spot in the Hall of Fame. He's won an MVP, been on 13 All-Star teams, made it on to nine All-NBA First teams and All-NBA Defensive first teams, but most importantly has five NBA titles and two Finals MVP's in the Los Angeles Lakers' past two championships.

Bryant has been benefited with quality teams for most of his playing career and has taken advantage on every occasion. He won three titles as a member of one of the most unstoppable duos in the league between him and O'Neal, and then won two as the leader of the team and with Pau Gasol by his side. He also made it on to two other teams that made it to the Finals, but couldn't finish the deal.

While James has more MVP awards, and will most likely win more as well, he's still far behind Bryant in the "top players" discussion and it's not even close. Kobe has made a career out of winning and success, while James can only look and wonder what could have been with Cleveland.

In only one season with Miami, he can already look to a possible title win, and maybe a Finals MVP if he can begin to step it up, and look to strengthen that resume that he has already added so much to.

One title would help break the ice, but it certainly wouldn't put him nearly over the top of Bryant, who has given nothing but effort to secure those five titles. One of the downsides of all this possible success for James would be the criticism of him not being able to win it on his own with Cleveland. Instead of pointing out that he had no one to rely on there, we'll point out that he has too much to rely on in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh as his running mates.

Will James' support system deny him from being named as one of the greatest? Take a look at what people think of Kobe Bryant and his first three titles and then get back to me. One of the biggest criticisms of Bryant's career has been that he needs another scorer to take a load off his shoulders during the postseason. O'Neal did it during all the years that those early-2000 Laker teams were winning and Gasol has done it over the past two Laker championships.

While Bryant was only a co-leader during the Lakers' three-peat, he has emerged as the sole leader of this Lakers team as he attempts to will his team to victory in every game. Pau Gasol certainly provides the support, but he's hardly Shaquille O'Neal in his prime, and it leaves it up to Bryant to solidify his legacy. Kobe has done well and he's earned a possible spot in the top 10 or 15 greatest players thanks mostly to his five titles.

For LeBron, he's certainly going to need more than one title if he wants to begin to silence anyone discussing his status as one of the best of all time. It's impossible to determine just how many titles it would take for James to surpass Bryant on the all-time list because we just don't know how the future is going to play out.

Judging from this season, it seems like the Heat are destined to win multiple titles. They have the talent to do it and it's going to be extremely difficult to stop them with two of the league's best players and a quality power forward as well.

Not only that, but it only makes it more difficult to determine just how many Finals MVP's James will win during those championship runs. Unless he begins to figure out Shawn Marion's defense, he's not going to win the award that goes along with leading a team to a title. So far, Dwyane Wade has begun to emerge as the clear-cut leader in this series and has shown that the 2006 experience is what's paying off.

Perhaps once James begins to gain experience in the Finals, then he will take home that piece of hardware as well, but for now it seems like it's going to go to Wade. Wade is the reason why the Heat have control of this series again and why they should currently be up 3-0.

With Wade possessing the hot hand, it's time to expect that the rest of the series will be his as he goes on to take home his second Finals MVP as well as his second championship.

LeBron James will have to wait for his Finals MVP, but he will finally have the title that he joined Miami to win if he and the rest of this Heat team can continue to learn how to keep big leads. James will be a happy man once he can win his first title and no longer be in the same sentence as Charles Barkley or Karl Malone.

No, LeBron wants to be named with the Michael's, Larry's, and Magic's of the league. His legacy could begin within the week.

You can follow John Friel on twitter @JohnFtheheatgod